Lodge comfort

DeHaan Homes Lodge comfort

Photography: Ashley Avila Photography

IIntegration, collaboration, and innovation: there are many benefits inherent to the design-build process, where its delivery method is based on having a single-source contact accountable for all aspects of the build and is supported by a skilled team of craftspeople with the singular goal of realizing their clients’ vision within the built landscape. It is about the goal of creating a sense of ease in a complex construction process, where an integrated, collaborative team works to address schedule-related challenges, cost and selection decisions, and practical site nuances from design, engineering, estimating, and specification writing, to construction and, finally, post-construction phases.

For DeHaan Homes, a custom residential design-build firm with nearly 95 years of experience across four generations in Hudsonville, Michigan, it is this very delivery process that defines its work as its experienced design-build team guides clients and homeowners through best-value solutions from initial design through move-in and through warranty. It is about the experience delivered to their clients and the trust established in the partnership through communication and service, and a flexibility to adapt to ever-evolving challenges in an industry faced with external disruptions. “Today, it is all about the journey and creating a great experience,” said Douglas DeHaan, president, fourth-generation craftsman, and owner of DeHaan Homes. “At times, the actual sketching and creative design is the easy part of the process; listening and being respectful and thoughtful of what our clients want to create, that is the hard part. Design is the graphic portion of listening to our clients’ lifestyle, capturing their vision of how they want to live in their home and the feel they desire to obtain upon completion.”

For DeHaan, who grew up working alongside his father on job sites, designing and building clients’ dream homes is a passionate venture, where foundational principles of quality and excellence in craftsmanship and workmanship are core to a successful, team-generated project. The company has developed a diverse portfolio of work throughout the years, ranging in scale, style, and typology, inspired by client vision and imagination and based on a process that is rooted in a collaborative approach of communication and creativity.

“We have great talent on our team with our internal goals of trying to provide the best client experience for our clients,” DeHaan said. “Our approach is commercial-like. That is, pre-designing plans, pre-designing our interior architecture, and also providing electrical plans, floor covering layouts, and all of our material selections before beginning the home, leaving the least amount of ambiguity with the selections and decisions. This process is one that promotes that hightouch experience. Most of the heavy-lifting has been done up-front. If you build a home and you have to design it as you build it, it becomes an onerous proposition.”

The vision

When it came to the grand hunting lodge and retreat on a roughly 125-acre site nestled among orchards, asparagus fields, timbers, groomed trails, and water, listening to the clients and translating their programmatic goals and overall vision into a 13,000-square-foot destination, instilled with a sense of intimacy and comfort, was integral to the design-build process. DeHaan noted the clients had previously experienced multiple remodeling projects and sought him out in their journey to renovate a small cottage near White Lake. When that real estate transaction didn’t work

out, the clients decided to invest in building a custom destination for the first time.

“It had always been his dream to have a resort-like home in a private location, so we listened intently to their desires. They were so understated and humble and when we were drawing, he kept talking about what he wanted to do and it kept growing due to their vision for how they wanted to live,” DeHaan said.

“Could we have put it in the ‘dryer’ and removed 1,000 square-feet out of it? I’m sure we could have, but, to me, scale is everything. I think when you go through the home, you really feel like the scale is proportional, meaning a large space can be perfect if executed correctly. You really feel like the space, though it is voluminous, is still intimate. That is the secret to design: how do you take something that is really big and make it feel cozy?” DeHaan added.

Designed by the design-build team at DeHaan Homes, they sketched a large lodge space with two wings. Organized with a private residential wing and a garage-guest wing on the opposite end, the two-story great room, indoor pool, and gathering spaces serve as its centerpiece. Its entry sequence opens up to the great room where a double-sided fireplace separates it from the indoor pool positioned directly beyond and six chandeliers, two fans, and a large, cus-

tom antler fixture provide an intimate scale, balancing the 28-foot-high space. The main public space is flanked on either side with more functional areas like the dining and residential kitchen—complete with island and window overlooking the pool—toward the guest wing, and smaller, more intimate entertainment areas are positioned near the private wing.

The entertainment spaces, which feature a pool table, lounge seating, powder room, and bar complete with a flip window opening out into the pool, are intentional in layout and scale. The series of gathering spaces then transitions into designated changing rooms and a pool bath before leading into the private master suite complete with fireplace. There is a secondary bedroom suite intended for their only granddaughter. On the upper

level of the residential wing, there are two additional bedroom suites and a shared lounge area for their adult children.

In the other wing, which transitions from residential kitchen to the garage entry area with a mudroom, bathroom, and laundry space, there is also an enclosed outdoor kitchen with shared access to both the garage and the interior pantry. The enclosed kitchen not only features a three-basin, stainless steel sink, but also a grill and cooktop. On the upper level, four guest suites, a guest lounge, and bathroom are designated space for their seven grandsons or, on occasion, hunting guests.

“We designed this lodge with two sleeping areas opposite each other,” DeHaan said. “It was just so unique in so many ways. The takeaway was listening to their lifestyle and how they wanted to use it, but trying to make it feel warm and intimate. They really wanted a small cabin, but, in reality, they were building a resort.”

The warmth in details

While large in footprint, DeHaan Homes was intentional in proportion and scale, integrating materials and finishes that infuse the lodge with textural warmth and intimacy. From the tactile surface of the Venetian plaster walls, the natural stone fireplace, and the warm-gray, old world, white oak fumed woodwork on top of imported wide-planked French floors; to the layering of custom furniture, built-ins, draperies, and Pendleton wool, the lodge’s materiality speaks to that intimate cabin concept.

“All the trim in the house is fumed, white oak, which is a process from the turn-of-thecentury where you remove the tannin acids out of the oak through a process of fuming. We used a UV matte finish, so it almost appears as if there is no finish at all,” DeHaan said. “The walls are all Venetian plaster, so it is a real warm finish and there is movement in the plaster. We felt that if we painted the walls even a warm color and they were smooth and flat, it would look too residential for what we wanted to accomplish.”

Other details found throughout the home comprise square treads on the stairwells, a beer tap and hanging rack in the bar area, and hammered stainless steel silverware, along with custom-built headboards, nightstands, and dressers, among other furnishings to fit the architecture and style of the home.

“We did the complete package of design, interior architecture, and interior selections including the furnishings, and we even coordinated their plates, cups, and dishware,” De-

Haan said. “To me, the most gratifying piece was starting with a humbling beginning and landing with such an expectation and actually exceeding it. To take clients’ own story and make it come to life, was the most profound thing to me about this journey we made together.”

The feeling

Though rather imposing in stance and approach, the lodge is a celebration of craftsmanship, detail, and understated rustic elegance. Its exterior silhouette speaks to the grand lodges of old, inspired by turn-of-thecentury resorts and modern-day destinations, while its exterior materiality doesn’t detract from the beauty of its sprawling wooded site. Its interior captures the ambiance of lodge comfort, which is achieved through the careful and thoughtful use and planning of warm tone woods, Venetian plaster, wide-planked floors, and a continual layering of materials—creating an intangible presence of everyday living.